One patrol boat and three tugboats arrived yesterday at the site where the containership MOL Comfort broke apart on June 17 during heavy weather while sailing to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
A total of five boats, including one more boat which is expected to arrive tomorrow, will prepare for the rescue.
According to MOL’s update on the incident the fore and aft parts are still drifting in the Arabian Sea. Some of the containers were lost, but majority of the cargo are confirmed to be aboard the fore and aft part.
“We have started an investigation on the causes together with the shipbuilder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Although the cause of this incident has not been identified yet, MOL, together with MHI and the classification society ClassNK, is arranging inspection of the all six MOL Comfort’s sister vessels as quickly as possible. This inspection is in addition to the one carried out by the crew during navigation. MOL also started operational precautions to reduce the stress on the hull as an interim contingency plan,” MOL said in its statement.
[mappress] World Maritime News Staff, June 25, 2013; Image: MRCC